Dolphins owner Stephen Ross unveiled plans Monday for a projected $375 million stadium upgrade and made a pitch for public tax support from state and local sources.

(UPDATE at 2:30 p.m. At the news conference, Ross pledged to contribute at least half the projected $375 million renovation cost. As for public funding, the team will seek a one percent increase in the hotel bed tax for mainland Miami-Dade (which would generate up to $10 million a year) and a $3 million annual state sales tax rebate for 30 years (which would have to be approved by the Florida Legislature.) Dolphins president Mike Dee called it “strictly a Miami-Dade effort,” meaning the team isn’t targeting taxes/help from Broward or Palm Beach Counties. Asked if he’d be willing to put the measures to a vote/referendum by Miami-Dade voters, Ross said, “That’s really not a possibility. The dates preclude that from happening.” He was referring to the timetable whereby NFL owners will award Super Bowl 50 in 2016 – for which South Florida is a contender – this May.)

The Dolphins' last bid a few years ago was a flop, when they asked for tourist tax dollars from neighboring Broward County along with Miami-Dade County, where SunLife Stadium sits.

Expect to hear lots of pleading and cajoling about how "we" need to kick in money for the stadium so that South Florida can continue hosting big games like the Super Bowl and college football's national championship.

I say more corporate welfare for billionaire NFL owners and teams is a ridiculously bad idea. And the recent smashing success of the BCS championship game, which featured great weather, big tourist crowds and a dud game between Alabama and Notre Dame, shows that nothing more is required to play host to these games.

SunLife Stadium, built privately on public land by Dolphins founding owner Joe Robbie, has already had $180 million in refurbishments in 2007. But now the team wants to build a partial roof to cover most seats and prevent the chance of rain soakings, along with doing other improvements.

To which I say: They can pay for it themselves.

The pitch for public dollars in Miami-Dade has certainly gotten harder after the disastrous inaugural year for Marlins Stadium. After tax dollars paid for most of the construction of the $600 million plus baseball stadium, the Marlins had a bad team, subpar attendance and the team proceeded to dump nearly all its high-paid players.

I'll be writing more about this for Tuesday's print edition, if I can keep myself from laughing too hard.

Ross can hold his helmet out all he wants, but I say the public should probably knock this bid down like a wobbly pass. And the chronically mediocre Dolphins should probably concentrate on making the playoffs again and actually winning a Super Bowl for the first time in nearly four decades instead of just playing host to the game.

And if the Super Bowl and college championship games won't come back here because the stadium is deemed insufficient, I say they'll miss South Florida more than we miss them. We'll still have plenty of tourists filling our hotel rooms and restaurants in January and February.